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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



GINEVRA 

A Play of Mediaeval Florence 



By 

Er>\VARD DOYLE 

Author of "Cagliostro", "Moody Moments", *%aymg the Hero to Rest' 

"The Haunted Temple and Other Poems", and 

"The Comet, a Play of Our Times" 



Doyle & Company, Publishers 

247 West 125th Street 

New York 

1912 






Copyright, 1911, by Edward Doyle 



Rights of dramatic production reserved 






Author's Note. 

In "Ginevra" the author's aim is to depict the unique experi- 
ence of the noble young Florentine matron who, prematurely 
buried during the Plague of 1400 A. D., escaped from the tomb 
only to be shunned by the living, and to make every character 
of the play true to the life and ideals of the Middle Ages. 

He has made use of the appearance of the Crimson Cross in 
the heavens, to which Dante bears testimony in the "Convito," 
believing that the meteorological wonder with its appeal to the 
soul to look with hope beyond the calamities incident to human 
life, might serve as a compensating offset to the appalling public 
scourge as subject-matter for a play. 



CAST OF CHARACTERS. 

BERNARDO AMIERI, 
ANTONIO RONDINELLI, 
FRANCESCO AGOLANTI, 
JESTER, 
( PRIEST, 

( CAPTAIN OF THE BLACK COMPANY, 
CHIEF ROYSTERER, 
GINEVRA AMIERI, 
THE MOTHER, 
VULMA. 

Black Company, White Penitents, Roysterers and 

Servants. 

Time.— 1398-1400 A. D. Place.— Florence, Italy. 



GINEVRA 

ACT I. 



(Hall in the Amieri Palace. Tables, benches and cabinets, all 
richly carved. Ginevra, seated, plays softly on ihe lute. 
The Mother enters, and lifting priestly vestments, views 
them admiringly.) 

MOTHER. 
Ginevra, you have your grandmother's gift. 
Like her, you make the vestments for a priest. 
As though they were for a Bishop ; for the Bishop, 
As though they were for the Pope, and for the Pope, 
As though they were for our dear Lord Himself. 

GINEVRA. 

Precisely. 

MOTHER. 
Surely, these are not the vestments 
That you are making for our humble priest? 

GINEVRA. 
They are. 

MOTHER. 
Why, child, the dear good man would part 
With them in a month, or less, that with the funds 
He might relieve the suffering folk of Florence ! 



True. 



GINEVRA. 

MOTHER. 
He has done it several times already. 



GINEVRA (ceasing to play.) 
I know it ; but is he not worthy, mother, 
Of finer vestments every time he sells 
His altar robes to ease a human ill? 



8 GINEVRA 

MOTHER (with feigned displeasure) 
Oh, I suppose, remonstrance is as useless 
With you, as it has always been with him ! 
(She folds the vestments and puts them away. Ginevra resumes 

her playing on the lute.) 
Dear, is the missal done ? 

GINEVRA. 

Not yet. 

MOTHER. 

Oh, dear! 
(She picks up the missal.) 
'Tis all but finished. Why not finish it? 

GINEVRA. 
I tried and tried this morning, but somehow 
My hand had lost its cunning for the work. 

MOTHER. 
Dear, try again. 

GINEVRA. 

Wait, let me bathe my soul 
In the lute's music ; I shall rise refreshed. 

MOTHER (after a pause.) 

Dear, it would please me and no less delight 

Your father 

GINEVRA (rising) 

Mother! hoiv delight my father? 

He never yet has had one word of praise 

For anything I did, or tried to do, 

Tho' oft my heart was hungry for that word. 

MOTHER. 
There you are wrong, my child ! Your father, dear, 
Has watched your growth as closely as the sun 
Watches the flower from seed to bud and bloom. 
Why, dear, he has been boasting that your art 
In book illumination is the finest 
In Florence. i 



GINEVRA 9 

GINEVRA (laughing softly.) 
Oh! 
(Puts lute aside.) 

MOTHER. 

He brings as guest to-day 

A judge of art, to show your work to him. 

GINEVRA. 
To-day ? 

MOTHER. 

This morning. You need have no fear. 
Your work will stand the test. 

GINEVRA. 

Oh, 't is not that ! 

MOTHER. 
What then disturbs you ? 

GINEVRA. 

Oh, I know, dear Mother, 
I should have told you! but each time I tried, 
My tongue clove to the roof of my parched mouth. 

MOTHER. 
Keep nothing from your mother. Tell me, dear! 

GINEVRA. 

Antonio 

MOTHER (eagerly) 

What about him? — 

GINEVRA. 

Is to come 
This morning and ask father to consent 

To our betrothal. 

MOTHER (dropping missal) 

What ! A Rondinelli ! 

Dissuade him ; oh, dissuade him ! What might happen 

I dread to think, if he should ever venture 

Beneath this roof upon a quest so rash. 



10 GINEVRA 

GINEVRA. 
He cannot be dissuaded. 

MOTHER. 

But he must! 
My child, he must ! 

GINEVRA. 

I tried as best I could — 
With both my heart and soul in mutiny — 
But he just smiled and said : "A Christian Knight 
Performs his duty reckless of the cost." 

MOTHER. 
Oh, he is noble ! Truly, I could close 
My eyes in peace, were I to see you wed 
To one so worthy. — List ! your father comes. 
Go, fling yourself before the Virgin's shrine 
And beg her help in this dire hour of need. 
(Ginevra retires and her Mother picks up the missal and reads.) 

"There is no dark in life, but trust in God, 
If it step boldly, or put forth its hand, 
Will find a marble stairway to the stars, 
Or balustrade to check its headlong fall." 

BERNARDO (entering) 
Where is Ginevra? 

MOTHER (cautiously) 

Gone to her devotions. 
I have the feeling that our daughter longs 
To leave this wretched world and be a nun. 

BERNARDO. 
What! 

MOTHER. 
She has always found great happiness 
In helping those in trouble or in need ; 
And, if her heart's desire should be God's will, 
It were not well for us to block God's way. 



GINEVRA 11 

BERNARDO. 
Zounds! Zounds! A fine thing, truly, to allow 
A daughter's fancy foil a father's judgment! 
Instruct our daughter that she must conform 

Her will to mine. If not there is no "not". 

The Amieri tree must bloom again 
With prominence and power, and overtop 
All other trees in Florence, as of old. 

MOTHER (with subdued voice) 
Antonio Rondinelli has fair virtues, 
And he adores Ginevra. 

BERNARDO. 

Rondinelli ! 

All his fair virtues are but candleshine 
Upon the ghastly features of my kin, 
Maimed treacherously by his hated breed. 
Speak not of him for our Ginevra's hand. 

MOTHER. 
I fear that few, with their ancestor's deeds 
Upon them like a garment, would look well 
In Christian company, my dear Bernardo ! 

BERNARDO. 
I hate the Rondinellis, root and branch, 
And shall while I have hand to strike them down. 

MOTHER. 
And yet, Bernardo, pray we not each day : 
"Forgive our trespasses as we forgive 
The trespasses of others?" 

BERNARDO. 

That sounds well, 
When one is on his knees petitioning Heaven, 
Or, when unhorsed — if of a craven heart — 



12 GINEVRA 

He asks for quarter; but the Amieri 
Never take quarter from the enemy ; 
Nor give it. 

MOTHER. 
Oh, our poor Ginevra ! 

BERNARDO. 

Peace. 

MOTHER. 
Her life is like a taper — all you see, 
Bernardo, — all that any father sees 
In a fair daughter — is the dazzling beam — 
The beauty that attracts the powerful. 
We mothers look beneath the brilliancy 
And see the taper shed away its life 
In tears that, at the end, extinguish it. 
Bernardo ! Let me warn you ere too late, 
Though gentle be our child, and soft her voice. 
She has the Amieri strength of will. 
And therefore, have a care whom you select 
To be her husband. 

BERNARDO. 

Agolanti. 

MOTHER. 

No! 
Oh, cast Ginevra in the tiger's cage! 
Come, come and I will help you seize our child ! 

BERNARDO. 
Calm your excitement. It will not avail. 

MOTHER. 
Oh, better for our child, if she were thrown 
To the wild beasts ! A momentary pang. 
And all is over. I could then give thanks, 
Knowing her soul at peace would smile, ''Amen." 



GINEVRA 13 

Oh, trust her not to him whom you have named, 
Bernardo, for her Hfe would be one moan, 
One deep, prolonged death ratttle in our ears ! 

BERNARDO. 
Francesco Agolanti has the will 
As well as power to help me raise our house 
To eminence again. 

MOTHER. 

I loathe the man. 
His eye has the sullen dullness which I dread 
As much in man as snake, while his fixed smile 
Has the cold shine of a serpent drawing near! 
My heart and soul recoil at sight of him. 

BERNARDO. 

Sheer fantasy! 

MOTHER. 

The loathing which I feel 
Toward Agolanti is no fantasy, 
Bernardo, but the enmity implanted 
By God in woman's nature toward the snake 
In any of its guises whatsoever. 

BERNARDO. 
Francesco Agolanti has the craft 
That gains control of men and holds its power. 
It cannot be forestalled, nor circumvented, 
Nor undermined. His craft will help our house. 

MOTHER. 
Oh, his are hands deft but to turn the rack 
And crack the bone upon the least suspicion ! 

BERNARDO. 
There should be no suspicion. 



I hope not. 



14 GINEVRA 

MOTHER. 

BERNARDO. 
Is not Ginevra duteous? 

MOTHER. 

As a daughter, 
None more so ; but as a wife, enraged by wrong 
Day after day, who knows what might betide ? 
Hers is no soul to brook indignity. 

BERNARDO. 
Indignity to Amieri's child? 

MOTHER. 
Yes, surely, for a shameless courtesan, 
Named Vulma, holds Francesco in her power ; 
Her wishes are Francesco's only law. 

BERNARDO. 
Gossip ! 

MOTHER. 
The truth ! I heard it from the lips 
Of his poor wife who, dying, drew me close 
And said : "Mourn not for me. I welcome death 
As gladly as I welcomed my first-born." 

BERNARDO. 
Oh, as a woman has small weight with women 
When she proclaims her husband's excellence. 
So she has little claim to man's regard 
When she decries her spouse with bitter tongue. 

MOTHER. 
My poor Ginevra! I foresee her doom. 
Her young life opes before me like a grave. 



GINEVRA 15 

BERNARDO. 
What ! Mother, would you hint our child might bring 
Dishonor to the Amieri name ? 

MOTHER. 
Oh, I have thoughts for which there are no words ! 
Such thoughts as have all mothers when they watch 
The child depart forever from the home 
In charge of one whom they believe a fiend. 

BERNARDO. 
You mount a fancy that's too wild to ride. 
It bites and kicks, whirls round and rears so high, 
That I must be gallant and take you down. 
Let young Antonio Rondinelli come 
This morning, if it is Ginevra's wish. 
There shall be no dishonor to our house. 
(Bernardo goes out.) 

MOTHER. 
Bernardo, dear Bernardo ! this is well. 
It is an answer to my strongest prayer 
That trampled down all others in my heart 
In haste to reach dear Mother Mary's ruth. 

(She raises her eyes to Heaven.) 
Dear Lord ! I thank Thee for the change of heart 
Wrought in Bernardo. For a second time 
Hast Thou for Thy compassionate Mother's sake. 
Changed water at a wedding into wine. 

GINEVRA (entering timidly) 
I see the answer. Mother, in your smile. 

MOTHER. 
Ginevra, never was a mother's heart 
So sparkling full of joy as mine is now. 
Your father has been gracious. He will meet 
Antonio this morning, if you wish ! 



16 GINEVRA 

GINEVRA. 
Oh, dear Antonio, I do fear his heart 
Will burst with overfullness of his joy! 
It is so great to me, that I half fear 
To reach my hand to touch it lest it melt. 

MOTHER. 
Thank God, my child, from whom all blessings flow. 

GINEVRA. 

How thank Him fitly? 

MOTHER. 

By a vow, my child, 
To help the poor of Florence for His sake. 
Let the rejoicings of afflicted folk 
Outshine all other tapers that you place 
On the Madonna's shrine, and keep it burning; 
For nothing is more pleasing to His sight. 

GINEVRA. 
I make that vow, fond mother, unto death. 
Antonio will help me keep it well ; 
For, though in battle there be none more bold. 
Or in the tourney, he takes more delight 
In binding up a wound than making one. 
How happy now will dear Antonio be 
To learn of father's graciousness to him! 
Oh, mother! mother! moth (laughs hysterically.) 

MOTHER. 

Why laugh so, child? 

GINEVRA. 
How help but laugh, dear mother, when I think 
Of dear Antonio's amazement, when 
He comes this morning with set face and doubt 
To scale the fortress of my father's frown. 
And finds there is no fortress here at all ! 
Oh ! here Antonio comes. What noble mien ! 



GINEVRA 17 

ANTONIO (entering) 
Ginevra ! 

GINEVRA. 

Dear Antonio, come here! 
(she leads him toward her mother) 
Salute our Mother. You are now her son. 

ANTONIO. 
My Mother, long, in sooth. 

MOTHER. 

God grant you peace, 
My children. I am proud to call you son, 
Antonio. 

ANTONIO (taking out ring) 

This was my mother's ring, 
Bestowed at her betrothal. 

MOTHER (in alarm) 

Wait, oh, wait! 
Slight not your father by a plighted troth. 
Before he hath vouchsafed you his approval 
With all the due formality himself. 
He will return soon; he expects a guest. 

(Mother goes out.) 
Ginevra, call me when your father comes. 

ANTONIO. 
Dear, tell me how this joy has come to pass. 

GINEVRA. 
The wonder worker was my mother. 

ANTONIO. 

How? 

GINEVRA. 
Who can explain a miracle ? The blind 
Obtain the vision of the beautiful ; 



^18 GINEVRA 

The deaf, the joy of music. That is all 
That can be said of father's change of heart. 
It is, it is ! Antonio, it is ! 
And in enjoying it I am content. 

ANTONIO. 
I am content. Dear, ever since I twined 
The garland on that most memorial May 
And crowned you queen amid the realming shout, 
I saw this day descending down the heavens 
To take command of all the sun-plumed troop. 

GINEVRA. 
And since that day, my dear Antonio, 
My thought, my dream, weal, woe and hope of Heaven, 
And night and morning prayer have been for you. 
(Enter jester zvith a donkey's head on his arm, who at the sight 

of Antonio zvhines like a dog. Antonio shows ring and takes 

no heed of the jester.) 

ANTONIO. 
No queen, dear, has so rich and rare a ring. 
My mother, dying, bade me take it off 
Her finger, and to keep it for the bride 
Worthy to wear it. It shall never deck 
Another finger, dear ; for doubly blest 
By being worn by two so virtuous, 
Its sparkle shall be lidded, like your eyes 
Within the casket sacred to your sleep. 

JESTER. 
Ha — ha ! ha — ha ! A ring for my mistress, not free and clear, 
for there is a mortgage upon it held by a skeleton. Look here, 
gallant Antonio, you have a jester in your castle whose neck you 
should have broken before he was born, and I bear you a grudge 
for not having done your duty on that occasion. Have you come 
here to prove my master's contention that the Rondinelli Castle 



GINEVRA 19 

can boast of a greater fool than I am ? Ha — ha ! Ha — ha ! ha — 
ha — ha — ha ! 

ANTONIO. 
Fool, why are you so merry this morning? 

JESTER. 
Merry ! Ha — ha ! There was never a man merry since Adam 
lost his rib. 

(Enter Bernardo with Francesco. The company curtsy to each 
other.) 

ANTONIO. 
Messer Bernardo Amieri, peace 
On both our houses. Hate, that like a hawk, 
Has brooded over them for lustres long, 
And hatched out only talons and fierce beaks. 
Has flown forever. In its place sits love, 
A bird of golden crest and songful throat, 
The melody of whose prolific brood 
Will show the sun the way to earth at dawn, 
And keep him lingering in the West at eve. 

BERNARDO. 
The Rondinelli tongue was always glib, 
Which takes with women better than with men. 

JESTER. 
A man's proper tongue is his sword, say I. 
Ha— ha ! 

ANTONIO. 
Truly, sir, were a lightning bolt to turn 
Into a snow-white dove in its descent 
From the black cloud, and perch upon my roof. 
Far less were I astounded at the sight 
Than at your glorious change of heart toward me. 
Shown by your countenancing my love at last 
For fair Ginevra. Oh, till this rapt hour. 
Little dreamed I how poor, indeed, are words 



20 GINEVRA 

As the ambassadors of gratitude ! 

They seem shipwrecked of all the wealth of heart 

With which they had been laden, leaving port. 

FRANCESCO (ignoring Antonio) 
Your artistry, however beautiful, 
Ginevra, has a rival in yourself. 

(Her reply is a look of surprise.) 

JESTER (taunting Antonio) 
Ha — ha! ha — ha — ha! Ha — ha! If your words had a rat's 
sense in them, they would never venture on a sea broader than 
an arm's length. Ha — ha ! 

BERNARDO. 
Get to your kennel. 

JESTER. 
First, give me my bone. If I am a dog, I am entitled to a 
bone, and I stand on my rights. There's not to be two fools in 
the house as long as I am master. 

BERNARDO. 
Begone! 

JESTER. 
My bone, my bone ! All Florence for my bone ! The bone 
that's to my relish is Rondinelli's departure from this house with 
break-neck speed. I want him to fetch his absence here by 
flying hence with the haste of a devil scalded by holy water. 
(Ginevra lifts up her finger at the jester who slifiks azvay, xand 
with his back turned to her laughs in low tone) 
Ha — ha ! ha — ha — ! ha — ha — ha ! 

BERNARDO (changing intention sud- 
denly) 
Ginevra! — Tell your mother that our guest, 
Francesco Agolanti, has arrived. 
And that we share one thirst which we would slake. 
(Ginevra bows and withdrazvs. Bernardo turns to Antonio.) 



GINEVRA 21 

Now, Rondinelli, few shall be my words. 
A stripling, having hurt his friend in play, 
Sought pardon of the father for the harm. 
In answer, he was seized and had his hand 
Put on a block and chopped off at the wrist. 
This stripling was an Amieri youth ; 
His mutilator was a Rondinelli. 

ANTONIO. 
That happened many generations back. 

BERNARDO. 
You know it, knave ! and yet you dare to cross 
The Amieri threshold. Villain, die ! 
(Draws his sword and makes a lunge at Antonio, who parries the 

blow. Fool leaps zvith delight at the sight of his master's 

flashing sword.) 

ANTONIO (handing sword back to 
Bernardo, whom he 
has disarmed) 



Your life is haloed by Ginevra's love. 
I am not sacrilegious in my heat. 

BERNARDO (refusing sword) 
What! To a Rondinelli owe my sword? 

ANTONIO. 
A filial act, due to your reverend years. 
(Lays the sword aside.) 

BERNARDO (to Francesco) 
And you stand idly by and lift no hand 
To save the Amieri house from shame ? 
Oh, twenty generations cannot scour 
This black dishonor to the house's head 
From its escutcheon ! And you, younger, too, 
Than I by twice ten years ! And you, the man 



22 GINEVRA 

Who would espouse my child to bring our house 
Defenders of its honor for all time ! 
I thought we shared ''one thirst?" 

4 

FRANCESCO. 

And so we do. 
I wanted to see you, tho' thrice his years, 
To have the glory of dispatching him 
Without another's help; not that, indeed. 
There is much glory even for tottering age 
To kick out of his way so vile a cur. 

ANTONIO. 
Francesco Agolanti, you presume. 
Knowing that you are sheltered 

FRANCESCO. 

Sheltered? fie! 

ANTONIO. 
Sheltered, you villain, by the fact you know 
I love Ginevra, and on her account 
That I decline to crimson now afresh 
This ancient palace floor which, to the mind 
That sees beneath its gloss from Time's long dance. 
Looks like a fresco fallen from the wall. 

FRANCESCO. 
"Decline", of course ! What else could one expect 
From a vile Rondinelli ? There ! 
(Throws glove in Antonio's face. Antonio kicks it and draws 

his sword. The jester jumps with joy as the fight becomes 

fiercer.) 

JESTER. 
Have at him, Francesco ! There you miss and now again. By 
the spirit of Csesar, I could do better than that with this donkey*s 
head. Dispatch him with one thrust ! That is all that is needed, 



GINEVRA 23 

if it be of the right heft and proper direction. Strike when I tell 

you, for no one can direct a battle like a fool that isn't in it. 

Have it your way, then! I can enjoy the fiercest battle, so long 

as my body is out of the reach of a jab. 

(Ginevra enters and rushes betzveen Antonio and her father, who 
is aibout to plunge his szvord in her lover's hack. He dashes 
Ginevra aside and fells Antonio with his sword thrust. Gin- 
evra shields Antonio from further blows by falling on his 
body.) 

MOTHER (entering) 
Oh, in the name of God ! What have you done ? 
Another awful crime upon this house ! 

GINEVRA (weeping and going out) 
A priest ! A priest ! He must not die unshriven. 

BERNARDO (presenting Francesco) 
Mother, Francesco Agolanti, whom 
I have selected to espouse our daughter. 

MOTHER. 
Evil betides the marriage, when, like this, 
It is without God's blessing. Spare our child ! 

BERNARDO. 
Blood calls for blood. It is a father's right 
To use precaution lest his daughter stain 
The honor of the house with wish or deed. 
There, her temptation lies, a lifeless dog! 

(Points to Antonio's body and Ginevra enters with the priest be- 
fore whom Bernardo and Francesco stand threateningly.) 

BERNARDO (to priest) 
You are too late to shrive the treacherous wretch, 
But you come timely to perform an office 
More to our temper, Priest. • ; 



24 GINEVRA 

* 
PRIEST (lifting cross) 

The Crucifix ! 
Make way for it, or ask not for its mercy, 
When death's white shadow falls upon your face. 
(They move aside, awestruck. Antonio stirs and speaks, weak 
of voice.) 

ANTONIO. 

I die content. Oh, better thus to go 

Than harm a hair, Ginevra, of your sire. 

The blow were parricidal by my hand. 

Nor shall your blush take color from one stain 

Shed by my hand upon your palace floor. 

PRIEST. 
Son, turn your thoughts toward Heaven. 

BERNARDO (beckoning to servants 
and pointing to An- 
tonio) 
Out with the dog! 
(They carry Antonio out and prevent the priest and Ginevra from 

following.) 
Priest, join Francesco and my daughter! 

GINEVRA. 

Father ! 
My heart and soul Antonio possesses, 
And they can not be taken from his keep. 

BERNARDO. 
Ha ! Not amiss then was the blow that felled him. 
The honor of our house has been preserved. 

GINEVRA (falling on her knees he- 
fore Francesco) 
Francesco Agolanti — on my knees 
I plead for mercy — mercy on your honor 
No less than mine because, compelled to wed, 
I never can be other than a corpse ; 
A blind, deaf charnel thing whom you will loathe ! 



GINEVRA 25 



MOTHER. 
Oh, that a child of mine should have to plead 
For mercy, and I helpless ! Would she were 
Within the convent's shelter, or the grave ! 



Unite them. Priest ! 



BERNARDO. 

PRIEST. 

I cannot marry them. 

BERNARDO. 
What! 

PRIEST. 
There must be consent on part of both. 

BERNARDO. 

This is no time to trifle. Marry them 

This instant ; or, by Heaven ! I'll drive this sword 

Into your carcass. 

PRIEST. 

Be it so. Death swings 

Open but once, and, whether soon or late, 

Matters but little to a soul prepared. 

Strike ! I am ready. 

MOTHER (rushing before priest and 
addressing Bernardo) 
No, no, no ! Strike me ! 

But add not to this house's many crimes 

The sacrilege of shedding saintly blood. 



Woman, away! 



There, daughter. 



BERNARDO (pushing her aside) 

MOTHER (dropping on her knees he- 
fore priest) 
One boon I crave — your blessing. 

PRIEST (blessing her) 



26 GINEVRA 

MOTHER. 

Oh, the blessing that I crave 
Is that you spare this house from further guilt. 
Let Prudence rule. 

BERNARDO (to priest) 
Decide ! 



I have decided. 



PRIEST. 

MOTHER. 
Oh! 

PRIEST. 
Daughter, I rejoice that I am called 
By God to be His witness of the truth. 



MOTHER. 
Oh, for the generations of this house 
As yet unborn, whose little voices plead 
With mine for mercy, like a cloistered choir, 
I now beseech you ! oh, good Priest ! good Priest ! 

(She continues her appeal in vehement, subdued tone.) 

PRIEST. 
How can I, daughter ? It would be no marriage, 
But profanation of the sacred rite. 

BERNARDO. 
Up from your knees, Ginevra, 'tis my will. 

GINEVRA. 
No, father, never ! Strike me with your sword, 
And I will take it as a kindly deed, 
And bless you for it with my parting breath. 

MOTHER (in desperation) 
Bernardo Amieri ! Spare our child. 



GINEVRA 27 

BERNARDO (seising Ginevra by the 
wrist and drawing her 
toward the priest) 
Unite them, and have done with idle speech. 
(Francesco looks on with his fixed, sardonic smile and the mother, 
burying her face in her hands, weeps convulsively.) 

CURTAIN. 



GINEVRA 



ACT II. 



(Two years later when Florence is stricken by the Plague. 
The Loggia of the Agolanti palace. The White Penitents are 
aroused from their slumber by the tolling of the bell, and 
decorously march off chanting a litany.) 

JESTER (entering) 
Ha, ha! ha — ha — ha — ha — ha! Ha — ha! 

FRANCESCO (entering in alarm) 
Is the plague in the palace ? 

JESTER. 
Not yet, good Master. It has probably delayed its visit until it 
could be sure that you were at home. 

FRANCESCO (sharply) 
Where is your mistress, Ginevra ? 

JESTER. 
By all accounts, good Master, my mistress Ginevra is out in the 
highways and byways of Florence, giving the angels a hand at 

their work. 

FRANCESCO. 

Fool, why did you toll the bell ? 

JESTER. 
For the best reason that a fool ever had — to put his master at 
ease. All night long those whitewashed rascals that have come 
down like locusts from the North, kept me awake droning their 
"Misericordia." I ordered them away. "Where is your master ?" 
said they. ''Out with the roysterers," answered I. "He is on the 
headlong road to hell," said they. "Don't follow his example," 
answered I. "We won't," said they, and they sprawled every- 
where they could put their bodies. If their drone was bad, it was 
nothing to their snore in chorus, and I tolled the bell that you, 
reaching home from your frolic, might snatch a wink of sleep. 

31 



32 GINEVRA 

FRANCESCO. 
Fool, don't you know that the tolHng of the bell is a signal for 
the Black Company to come? 

JESTER. 
Let them come. It will do their hearts good that there is no 
dead one here to carry to the Lazaretto. 

FRANCESCO. 
Here they are. 

(Enter Black Company.) 

CAPTAIN (after looking around) 
Where is the dead whom you would have us bury? 

FRANCESCO. 
It was the fool who tolled the bell. 

CAPTAIN. 

Mad sport, 
Francesco Agolanti, when the Plague 
Is falling like sharp hail on every house 
And whitening the city like the Alps ! 
God grant that you need not our service soon. 
(Black Company goes out, and Francesco seizes Jester by the 
neck,) 

FRANCESCO. 
I have the will to wring your neck off, wretch ! 

JESTER (escaping) 
Look here, master! Let me tell you something. The Plague 
belongs to the Guild and enjoys the reputation of doing its work 
very well. It does not need your help to depopulate Florence. 
Ha— ha ! 

(The roysterers are heard singing.) 



GINEVRA 33 

FRANCESCO. 
It bodes ill for the black-cowled Company 
To make a visit to a festive house. 
'T is like Death looking in and whispering, "Next." 
Fool, call the servants. Bid them fetch the wine — 
A cask of it — the best vernaccio ! 
Here come my friends to help me drown the Plague. 

JESTER. 
Ha— ha! ha— ha— ha— ha! Ha— ha! 

FRANCESCO. 
Hurry, fool, hurry. I have a bursting head. 
(Jester picks up stuffed donkey's head, which has been dropped 
in the scuffle.) 

JESTER. 
I must have my donkey's head, Master. It is my birthright and 
royal prerogative, and I have more sense than to abdicate the 
throne for even two minutes in favor of next of kin. 

FRANCESCO. 
Be off ! No time for this. 
(Seizes donkey's head from Jester and dashes it on the floor.) 

JESTER (picking it up again) 
I need this donkey's head more than you. Master, for you have 
one already, and if I should leave this you would then have two. 
Ha — ha ! (Goes out.) 

FRANCESCO. 
Oh ! how endure this damnable existence 
In Florence for a day, or even an hour. 
But for the anti-God, born of the grape. 
Who comes to our relief ! — Friends, welcome ! welcome ! 
(Enter a dozen roysterers, one of them, Vulma, richly attired, and 
all join in a song of the period. Servants come in zvith wine.) 



34 GINEVRA [ 

VULMA. 
A toast, Francesco ! One to fire the blood 
Till its bright flare defends us from all pests. 

SEVERAL VOICES. 

Toast ! 

FRANCESCO. 

Wine that breaks in laughter at the mouth 

At thought of death — wine in whose crimson depths, 

We make a merry merman world of life 

Afar from sight and sound of human ill — 

Wine, where the long lost sunshine of the sky 

And radiance of the yet unrisen suns 

Become Love's ravishing lips, that press our mouths 

And breathe to being all our wildest dreams, 

And then immune us happy from all harm ! 

(They applaud and all drain their glasses except the Chief Roys- 
terer, zvho looks reflective. The Jester, entering, snatches 
the Roysterers glass and drinks its contents.) 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 
May that choke you. 

JESTER. 
Ha — ha — ha — ha — ha — ha ! Ha — ha ! 

(Jester takes two glasses of zvine from the servants and presents 
them to the Chief Roysterer.) 

JESTER. 

Here, take these two glasses for that one. 

(He zvithdrazvs the glasses and drains them himself, whereupon 
the Chief Roysterer goes to the \board and, lifting a decanter, 
puts it to his mouth, causing general laughter.) 

VULMA (coquettishly) 
Your wine is good, Francesco, but your toast 
Could be improved on. Is it only wine 
You think about, fond lover? Only wine? 



GINEVRA 35 

Has wine disfigured, in a jealous fit, 
Her fairer rival in your heart and mind? 

FRANCESCO. 
Oh, Woman more than wine, but for whose beauty 

JESTER. 
There never would have been an ass in the world and. in 



faith, hell would never have had an inhabitant, except the Devil. 
Ha— ha ! 

FRANCESCO. 
Her beauty is the sun above the world 

JESTER. 
You are right, good Master; and if I were a Joshua, I would 
command the sun to stand high in heaven forever — that the battle 
between man and man might go on without end. Ha — ha ! 
(They laugh uproariously.) 

FRANCESCO. 
Refill your glasses. Now, we drink to Woman. 

(They drink.) 

JESTER. 
H woman, the fruit of Adam's body, had remained crude in 
him, and not ripened and fallen to the earth — what would be 
the outcome ? There would have been no outcome at all, and that 
should end the matter — but it doesn't. The schoolmen pick up a 
question where the fool lets it drop, and therefore you will have 
to go to them for an answer to the problem — If woman had 
remained to this day simply as a bone in Adam, what kind of a 
bone would it be? Cui bono or pro bono publico f 
(They laugh uproariously and Francesco, seising the Jester, 

places him on the table. They crowd around the Jester and 

do not observe Ginevra, zvho enters from the door, grave of 

countenance and in hospital attire.) 

FRANCESCO. 
A sermon, fool ! 



36 GINEVRA 

COMPANY (in chorus) 

A sermon by the fool ! 

JESTER. 
I shall, faith, and I will not be the first fool in the pulpit to ad- 
dress his brethren. Now, don't put me down for a dull preacher, 
if the smell of your wine gets into my homily and sets you snoring 
like the White Penitents. (They laugh. He fixes his gaze on 
Vulma and points at her.) First, my homage to the lady of the 
house. I know her by the gems in her hair and brooch on her 
breast, and above all, by that ring on her first finger that should 
have been on the third. (The Jester sees Ginevra and darts down 
from the table and out.) Ha — ha ! ha — ha — ha — ha ! Ha — ha ! 

VULMA (excited with wine) 
Yes, yes ; the fool is right, Francesco — right ! 
Having your heart and every jewel prized 
By haughty Amieri, even the ring 
That flaunted in your face her paramour — 
I am the mistress here, and yet am not. 

FRANCESCO. 
Your will has way with me in everything. 

VULMA. 
Then, give me the possession of this palace 
That I, henceforth, may queen it openly. 

FRANCESCO. 
Be patient, Vulma. If I could look over 
Plague's shoulder at the lengthy scroll he holds, 
I might find there a name that would read well ; 
For she, Ginevra, follows close to him 
Thro' Florence, in the vain attempt to snatch 
His victims and to wash his mark from them. 
He may get angry at her impudence. 



GINEVRA a? 



VULMA. 
It must be now, Francesco, see ! To foil 
The Plague if it touch me. This may be put 
To other purpose, if you halt half way. 
(Shows dagger.) 



Ginevra has no issue. 



FRANCESCO. 
VULMA. 



That you know. 



FRANCESCO. 
Her dower which you have helped me to enjoy 
Can be two-thirds reclaimed. Wait till the Plague 
Exhausts its roster ; for the father, too. 
May be among the drafted. In that case 
There is no claimant for the lost two-thirds 
To worry me a moment. 

VULMA. 

Still you halt. 
Install me in the palace, Agolanti, 
With the due honors, and, before nightfall, 
I shall unearth to your blind sight a truth 
Which Florence, under breath, for many a month, 
Has whispered where you passed with peacock strut, 
As tho' you also had the peacock's eyes. 

FRANCESCO. 
What! I the butt of any jest in Florence? 

VULMA. 
Where is Antonio Rondinelli ? 

FRANCESCO. 

Cloistered ! 

VULMA. 
Cloistered indeed, and most luxuriously 
Beneath this roof. 



38 GINEVRA 

GINEVRA (stepping forth and start- 
ling the company) 
A falsehood ! by the Mother 
Of Sorrows, I declare these words are false! 

FRANCESCO. 
Ha! That explains the mystery. Who else 
Had provocation but Antonio 
To have our marriage questioned by the Church? 
I now know who induced you to invoke 
The Holy Office. 

GINEVRA. 

I? 

FRANCESCO. 

Deny it not, 
You lily with an adder coiled within ! 

GINEVRA. 
A priest, sent by the Bishop, questioned me 
About what happened on our marriage day. 
And said I would hear further in due time. 

FRANCESCO (gloating) 
But you have not heard further ! Nor shall you ! 
For, to relieve your keen anxiety, 
And drown the dreams that keep you wide awake 
Night long, like howling dogs that want a bone. 
Let me inform you that the marriage holds. 
Ha ! I could quote good Scripture to the point : 
"Whom God has joined let no man put asunder." 

GINEVRA (with a sigh) 
I am your wife until Death do us part. ' 

FRANCESCO. 
Begone, I have some friends to entertain. * 



GINEVRA 39 

GINEVRA. 
Francesco, for your soul's sake and the thirst 
Of God Himself for your salvation, cease 
This demon work! Disband these revellers! 

VULMA (impudently) 
Who is this mansion's mistress — she or I ? 

GINEVRA (ignoring Vulma) 
Francesco, let this woman keep the gems 
But go her way. 

VULMA (laughing) 

Ha ! Even keep this ring ? 

GINEVRA. 
No, I except that ring, which I thought lost. 

FRANCESCO (with grim irony) 
Aye, which you then bemoaned, and for a month 
Sought from the roof to cellar, as a cat 
Her kitten, taken from her to be drowned. 

GINEVRA. 
Perhaps so. Will you not return that ring? 

FRANCESCO. 
Never. 

GINEVRA. 
That ring must be interred with me ! 

FRANCESCO. 
And give Antonio an eternal laugh 
At my blind folly ? Have the Florentines 
Not meat enough for mirth ? 

GINEVRA. 

Mirth? More for t«ars. 



40 GINEVRA 

FRANCESCO. 
Meat that left over from the board to-day 
Would taste as well served cold in after years. 

GINEVRA. 

The ring, Francesco — I must have the ring. 

FRANCESCO. 
Never. 

GINEVRA. 
No other favor have I sought — 
At least not since the day upon my knees 
I begged for mercy on yourself and me 
That I be not compelled to wed, for, with my soul 
Departed, how be other than a corpse ? 

FRANCESCO. 
Off ! blind, deaf charnel thing whom I do loathe ! 

(Seises her arm with savage grasp) 
But stay! Where are you hiding him? Bring me 
Where he is lurking that this glaring sword 
May slake its tiger throat and give me peace. 

GINEVRA (wincing) 
I know not where he is, or if he is. 
The last I saw of poor Antonio, 
Was when they dragged his bleeding body out 
And would not let the holy priest shrive him. 

FRANCESCO (lifting sword) 
Die, hideous liar ! nor shall a priest shrive you ! 

GINEVRA (falling on her knees) 
Francesco, ere you strike, one parting word ! 
If the good God permit, I shall return 
And show you by a wonder and strange sign 



GINEVRA 41 

How foully I have been defamed in Florence. 
This is my earnest prayer, and God will grant 

My heart cry. . rr i \ 

FRANCESCO (turning to Vulma) 

Vulma, you shall prove your charge. 

Speak ! 

VULMA (dropping into a seat) 

I am deathly ill. 

FRANCESCO. 

Look at her arm! 

(They uncover her arm.) 

ROYSTERERS (in chorus) 

The spot is on it 1 . 

FRANCESCO (to Jester, and hurrying 
out) 
Toll the bell. 
(Jester tolls bell and Roysterers rush out.) 

VULMA (rising and following them) 
Wait, wait! 
Oh, help me out of this accursed place! 
What, oh, my friends, are you abandoning me? 
I am 'abandoned! God! I am abandoned! 
(Falls on the floor and lifts her dagger. Ginevra approaches and 
seizes the weapon.) 

GINEVRA. 
Oh, fly not in the face of God, poor soul ! 
(Hastens indoors.) 

VULMA 

Let me cut out the spot upon my arm. 

That spot there is the Plague. Oh, cut it out! 

There is no hope while that is on my arm. 

Oh, give me back the dagger! Let me end 

This torment!— O, you worse than thief— You fiend— 

To steal my only hope to cheat the Plague! 



42 GINEVRA 

GINEVRA (returning zvith water and 
sponge, zvhich she ap- 
plies.) 
Put trust in God ; for oh, the farther off 
From every human hope, the nearer Him. 
Pray. 

VULMA. 

I ? Too late ! 

GINEVRA. 

Never too late; for mercy^ 
Although Archangel, dwells not in High Heaven 
Among the glorified, but on the earth 
Among the wretched who implore reprieve. 

VULMA. 

What torture ! Ease this pain ! Relieve this pang ! 

Where is Francesco? Has he left me, too? 

Fie for his jewels! they are demon eyes! 

But oh, this ring — I cannot part with that. 

(Bnter Black Company chanting a hymn. They place Vulma on 
the litter, and when they are about to start, she rises from 
her prone posture and addresses Ginevra.) 

Remove it from my finger ! Would to God 

I could thus take my falsehood off your name ! 

(Ginevra takes ring and puts it on her finger. The Black Com- 
pany carry Vulma out, whereupon Bernardo enters with his 
wife.) 

MOTHER (with trembling voice) 
Ginevra ! Sure that it was you they fetched 
From out the palace gate, I bade them halt 
And raise the cover. 

GINEVRA (sighing) 

Would it were! 

MOTHER. 

We came 
To be with you that all might die together ; 
For there is no escape, go where we will. 



GINEVRA 43 

No breeze from East, from West, from North or South, 
But comes here freighted with the pestilence 
As it was wont with fragrance from the vines. 

GINEVRA. 
I feel no terror, mother ! it is gone. 
Oh, there are worse afflictions than the Plague ! 

BERNARDO. 
Where is Francesco? 

GINEVRA. 

Fled, a fugitive, 
The moment that his friend was stricken down. 

BERNARDO. 
What friend, that he should have deserted you? 

GINEVRA. 
A woman whom he brought here to preside 

Over his revels and — father! to unearth | 

The secret cloister of my paramour, 
Antonio, within this palace! 

BERNARDO. 

What! 
GINEVRA. 
She said all Florence knew that it was so, | 

And he believed her; for he raised his sword 
To strike me — which I wish he had — God knows ! — 
When I declared the woman's words were false. 

MOTHER. 
I knew it would be thus when I opposed 
The cursed alliance. 

BERNARDO. 

By the living God, 
Francesco will pay dearly for the slur 
He casts upon the honor of our house, 
Without just cause! Where is your master, fool? 



44 GINEVRA 

JESTER (entering) 
In the ark, by this time, if he isn't winded. He heard Noah 
calHng aloud for a good specimen of an ass. Ha — ha ! ha — ha — 
ha — ha! Ha — ha! My master, sensible man that he is, prefers 
an ass's stall, or even a rat hole, in the ark, to the deluge which 
has shifted from Palestine to Florence and left the rainbow be- 
hind it. Ha — ha ! ha — ha ! ha — ha ! 

MOTHER (in alarm) 
Bernardo ! See Ginevra's face ! 

BERNARDO (approaching daughter) 
Ginevra ! 
(He catches her as she swoons and the Mother applies the cus- 
tomary remedies.) 

FRANCESCO (returning cautiously) 
What! also fair Ginevra, my pure wife? 

BERNARDO (bitterly) 
Yes, ''also'\f 

MOTHER. 
Yes, and your pure wife, whose life 
Was light perpetual at the Virgin's shrine. 

BERNARDO. 
You dastard! you shall answer for your deed. 

FRANCESCO (to Mother) 
See if the dread spot is upon her arm. 

MOTHER (uncovering Ginevra's arm) 
Look! there it is! The Plague! Oh! 

FRANCESCO. 

Toll the bell! 
(Francesco goes to bell and tolls it. The Jester plucks flowers 
and makes a wreath.) 



GINEVRA 45 

MOTHER (kneeling) 
O Father ! unto Thee do I return 
The child Thou gavest me that she might know, 
Love, serve Thee ; nor with less a mother's joy 
Do I return her, than when I received. 
Lord ! Thou whose glorious life it is to lower 
Upon the earth to help those stricken blind 
With sin, or grief, or death, to reach the height 
Above the clouds that mystify this life, 
Touch my poor child's dark eyes, that she have sight 
Which is the soul's ascension into Heaven. 

BERNARDO (raising her) 
Come, poor Ginevra's spirit is at peace. 
'T is perilous, if we stay longer here. 

MOTHER (returning to Ginevra) 
Ginevra, oh, Ginevra ! oh, my child ! 
My baby born anew and in my arms ! 
My nursling at the breast, with round red mouth 
Open, as are your eyes with sparkle, when 
Between your sips you look up in my face, 
Like a wee birdie drinking at the spring ! 

BERNARDO (touching her arm) 
Come, come ! 

MOTHER. 

My darling, I behold again 
Your consciousness reflect your mother first 
And broaden till it mirrors all the world ! 
Again, a toddler, you stray far from home 
Into a graveyard where you fall asleep. 
Oh, that again I could wake you, my child. 
And bring you home rejoicing — that again 
You might say : *'I will go away no more !'* 

BERNARDO. 
Come ! 



46 GINEVRA 

MOTHER. 
Let me shut her eyes and fold her hands. 
My daughter! oh, my daughter! There you smile 
Upon me in your first Communion dress 
Which you yourself embroidered ! For your skill 
At needlework was marvellous and matched 
Your rubrics in the missal in your hand. 

BERNARDO. 
Come ! 

MOTHER. 
Oh, my only child brought forth alive ! 
My joy, my hope, my comfort! My Ginevra 
Who, grown a woman ere I was aware. 
Was dragged forth to her marriage, as a lamb 
Is dragged forth to its slaughter ! 

(Chanting of Black Company is heard.) 

BERNARDO. 

Here they come. 
MOTHER. 
Ginevra ! Oh, Ginevra ! Just one word 
To your poor mother! Oh, just one for those 
That she was wont to murmur night and morn. 
While yet you slept unconscious of her love ; 
For now you are the Mother, she, the child — 
The mother over her to guide her soul, 
And help her tear-blind, tottering flesh to stand 

And not fall prone. 

BERNARDO. 

Come! 

MOTHER (kissing Ginevra) 

Oh, if but this kiss 
Upon your brow, cheek, mouth and your closed eyes 
Could be eternal ! Must it be the last ? 

(She is forced away from Ginevra's body by Bernardo cw the 
Black Company enters. The Captain falls on his knees and 
then speaks in a loud voice) 



GINEVRA 47 

CAPTAIN. 
Lord! if upon this soul there still remain 
A shadow to detain it from Thy presence, 
For only purity without a speck 
Can enter where Thou art in Thy full glory, 
The guilt is mine, and mine should be the pain. 
I was this soul's confessor, and the power 
And grace bestowed me by Thy Holy Church 
Never gave me such beatific joy 
As when Ginevra was my penitent ; 
For, from her girlhood to her marriage day 
Her mind and heart, a lily and a rose. 
Had only richest fragrance to confess. 
If stain thereafter fell upon this soul, 
The guilt is mine, O Lord ! in that I sinned 
Against the Light in not defending her 
And taking from Thy hands the martyr's crown. 
Oh, keenly I repent, and trust, good Lord! 
My humble service to the sick and dead 
Will find acceptance by Thy clemency 
In expiation of my grievous fault. 

JESTER (putting a garland on Gin- 
evra' s head.) 
It would never do for the real lady of the house to go out with- 
out a wreath on her head. 

(The Captain rises and begins a hymn which the Company take 
up as they carry Ginevra's body away on the litter. The 
Jester throws away the donkey's head and his cap and bells 
and falls on his face with a groan.) 

JESTER. 
O Plague ! I could forgive you for coming here, if you had 
only spared my mistress. You might have taken all the rest of 
Florence, but you should have spared her. O Plague, cruel 
Plague ! You have made an orphan of me and left me without 
a friend in the world. Who else will ever peep under my motley 



48 GINEVRA 

t 

merriment — the cloak that I throw over my deformity — and sigh 
to see there a crushed human heart? (Moans and then rises.) 
Oh, I shall eat no more, nor drink, but will go to my lady's tomb 
like a faithful dog and never be driven away. Oh, yes, a watch- 
dog I shall be at her tomb, for my mistress, Ginevra, has the 
dazzling ring on her finger, and the robbing of graves is a common 
thing these days. I can watch as well inside the tomb as outside, 
and besides, if I should nap, even my faintest snore within the 
sepulchre would be enough to put the boldest ghoul of them to 
flight. Ha — ha! (Hurries off.) 

CURTAIN. 



GINEVRA 



ACT III. 



(A large, dark vault with door on the left, and outside the thor- 
oughfare is shaded by the campanile of a church. It is mid- 
night and the Jester approaches the vault door.) 

JESTER. 
Now I shall enter my lady's tomb, and with my eye on her 
ring, I shall stand over her body without fatigue, as though I were 
the marble statue of an angel. (He tries the door and shakes his 
head.) What a pity it is that I was not brought up a sexton ! Oh, 
that the angel who helped the Marys to roll away the stone of 
old, would only give me a hand! (Looking around he spies an 
iron bar and pries the door with it. He hears the Black Com- 
pany chanting in the distance and hurries at his work, effecting 
an opening large enough to squeeze through in time to escape dis- 
covery. He crouches in the tomb and the Black Company halts.) 

CAPTAIN. 

One boon, dear brethren, suffer me to ask. 

Great as the need of haste is in our toil ; 

'T is that whenever you approach this tomb. 

You kneel and pray in silence for the soul 

Whose fleshly shade here dwindles into dust. 

And, in atonement for my grievous fault. 

You chant the Stabat Mater for my peace. 

(They kneel, are silent a few moments, and then sing, the Captain 
leading. At the conclusion of the hymn they continue their 
march. The Jester works his way out through the door and 
picks up the tool.) 

JESTER. 
I threw away the donkey's head, but retained his brain, or I 
would have taken this tool in with me. I could have been working 
all the time that they were praying and chanting their hymn, and 
they would never have been the wiser. Oh, truly, the difference 
between a wise man and a fool is that the fool throws away his 
wisdom and the wise man keeps it to himself like the itch. What 

51 



52 GINEVRA 

a breeze! It is worth a baker's dozen of kingdoms on a night 

like this. (Opens the door and is startled by the crimson light 

from the cross which now appears in the sky.) Where is that 

Hame from? Has the city taken fire from the blaze of the plague 

rubbish which lights up the streets wherever you go? (Comes 

out and looks up.) No, no. A Crimson Cross? Oh, if I could 

only wake up my mistress to see that cross in the air without a 

dome to hold it. It is a blood-red cross, like the one in the missal 

which she gave me to take to Antonio Rondinelli, though ten 

million times larger. Who knows but that it is my mistress, 

Ginevra, who now illuminat'es the night like a missal with her 

powers increased ten million fold on high? Ah, truly, I was 

meant for a troubadour, but brought up to the trade of a fool. 

(Re-enters tomb and, hearing Ginevra sigh, he looks up and 

around and speaks in a trembling voice.) Peace, gentle lady! I 

forgot my promise to Rondinelli — to tell him of your death. I 

will now go and tell him — that you have departed this life — and 

that you are now — at re-st — in — the — tomb. 

(He hurries away. There is a red glozv in the tomb and in the 

thoroughfare from the cross in the sky. Ginevra stirs, lifts 

her hand to her \brow and feels about her. She rises to a 

sitting posture and glares around. She takes the zvreath off 

her head and, gazing at it, screams faintly.) 

GINEVRA. 
God ! Can it be that I am dead ? entombed ? 
It is a funeral wreath. Help ! Mother ! Father ! 

(She endeavors to get off the bier.) 
My feet are fastened. Is this Purgatory 
Where I must suffer for my frailties ? 
If so it be, no murmur shall I make. 
Except the prayer : "God grant me swift release." 
How strange this light ! Is it the rays of Heaven 
Made warmly crimson by the Saviour's heart 
Through which they pass to souls that suffer here ? 
But, am I dead ? I smell the charnel damp. 
I feel this wreath and break it, and I see 



GINEV RA 53 

The red glow of the place, the open door 

And, oh, I drink thy breezes, O my God, 

As tho' they were Thy spirit, mouth to mouth ! 

Am I deranged, or dreaming? Oh, my heart 

Throbs like a wounded bird within the hand, 

And what a nightfall is my brow with dew ! 

(Having felt her heart and head, she bends over to release her 

feet, but is soon fatigued.) 
Help ! Would my limbs were loosened from this weight 
That I might reach the door and cry aloud ! 
For Florence surely then would have one ear, 
Of all its thousands, which would hark and heed. 
Oh, I am like a murdered body, cast 
Into the river with a mass of stone 
About it to make sure that it would sink. 
Never to rise ! This is Francesco's work. 
God knows I was a faithful wife to him. 
That never did I let a thought, or dream, 
About the noble one, i\ntonio. 
Become a hope, or wish. God ! grant me grace 
Unto the end which cannot be far off, 
That I may smear not with the faintest breath 
The crystal of my duty as a wife. 
Although I spoke the word with absent soul 
And felt the altar there a blasphemy. 

(The chanting of the White Penitents is heard in the distance.) 
Ah, hope at last ! Here come the Penitents. 
O God! again I thank Thee for Thy breeze 
Which gives me strength and voice to hail for help. 
(The White Penitents pass along the street chanting the ''Miseri- 

cordia." ) 

Help, help, kind souls ! Release me from this tomb. 

(The Penitents halt and look bewildered.) 
Help ! help me for the sake of Him who, when 
Expiring on the cross, cried out aloud : 
''My God! my God! Hast Thou forsaken Me?" 



54 GINEVRA 

LEADER (to Penitents) 
An evil spirit ! Heed it not. Pass on. 

(The Penitents resume their march, chanting.) 

GINEVRA. 

God ! is there then no one to heed my moan ? 

Am I beyond the reach of human help, 

Tho' scarce five paces from the open door? 

( She bends over and looks dozvn on the floor.) 

Oh, little brown earth-worm, so slow of creep, 

Thou yet shalt reach the door, but never I ! (Weeps.) 

God, take from me this longing to invoke 

The name of fair and fond Antonio ; 

For, if I only were to whisper it. 

And Florence were a ceaseless thunder roar, 

I know that he would hear and haste to me. 

And free me from this most appalling doom. 

God ! grant me strength to break this band, for, oh ! 

A few steps to the open door, and then 

I am among the living once again. 

(SJie endeavors to unfasten the band and, after a protracted strug- 
gle, succeeds at the point of exhaustion. She lets herself 
down from the bier and, after standing a moment, totters 
and falls in a swoon. Meanwhile Antonio is seen approach- 
ing the tomb.) 

ANTONIO (entering the tomb) 
Adorable Ginevra! is it thus 
I find your body ? They have flung it down, 
As tho' it were the carcase of a dog ! 
Oh, faithful soul ! the ring is on your finger. 
And it shall stay forever in your keep. 
(Bends over and is about to kiss her brow, but stands up with a 

shudder.) 
No, no ! It must not be. No lure of flesh 
Drew me to fair Ginevra when alive. 
But her pure spirit ; and, now that she is dead. 
To touch her cheek or forehead with my lips. 



GINEVRA 55 

Would be a deed akin to sacrilege. 

(He lifts her body from the floor and rearranges wreath on her 

brow.) 
Oh, if my bosom were thy bier, dear love ! 
How then my eyes would find eternal peace 
In resting on thy countenance divine! 
How, till the Day of Judgment, I could watch 
That, then, your liberated soul and mine 
Might clasp each other by the hand, and go 
Before the Judge for judgment of our love — 
Whether or no it has not been a lark 
In the high heaven of its own melody, 
Since it was driven forever from the earth? 
Oh, could you know how I have longed for death, 
So that my soul, set free, might soar to Heaven 
And there procure the panoply of grace 
To shield your peace from— if not menace — harm ! 
You are the guardian angel now to me. 
Oh, I shall be a hermit and dwell here ! 
Your tomb shall be my cell. My beads shall be 
The memories of all the mirthful hours 
We spent together, since our eyes first met 
Until the day of days, which hope beheld 
Descending from high Heaven to take command 
Of all the sun-plumed troop, was backward hurled 
With the abruptness of a thunderbolt, 
When there was not a cloud in all the sky. 
These beads shall I recount beside your bier. 
And should I pause, Ginevra, it will be 
To shape my meditations and my dreams 
Into a crown of art to deck your brow 
In the full vision of the world, that all 
Who truly love may hail you as their queen. 

(He stoops, and lifting the worm, throws it out of the door.) 
Out, little brown-earth-worm ! I am the page, 
Rather than you, to wait upon this queen. 



56 GINEVRA 

(He kneels, crosses himself before and after a silent prayer, and 

arising, goes toward the door.) 
If I go now to get the things I need, 
I can be back ere Florence is awake. 
(He goes out of the tomb, and zvhen about to shut the door fast, 

desists.) 
Ah, no, no, no! I circumvent myself 
If I disturb the vault door from the way 
That it was left — the careless, heartless way! 
For, if the door, left open, should be shut, 
The news would soon reach Agolanti's ears 
And he would know the hand that shut the door, 
And take good care, then, to cement it fast. 
(Antonio goes into the street and disappears. Ginevra awakes 

and rises from the bier as if zvith pain. She steps upon the 

floor and looks around.) 

GINEVRA. 
How long have I been here ? was it a dream 
My feet were fastened ? — that I burst the band 
And, wild with hope to reach the open door, 
I leaped down from this bier, but was swirled round 
With giddiness half-way and fell in the dark? 
God grant me now the strength to reach the door. 

(She moves slozvly out of the tomb.) 
Out ! out ! Thank God. Out of the tomb at last ! 
I will make haste now to my husband's house. 
And, if my suffering be the means of grace 
For his redemption, I am well content. 
(She makes her zvay to the street, but suddenly stops and utters 

her words in a moan.) 
Yet oh, to live again! God pity me. 
I never dreaded death as I dread life. 
Oh, death has not such terrors as has life 
Devoid of love, that must be lived again ! 

CURTAIN. 



GINEVRA 



ACT IV. 



(Loggia of the Agolanti Palace as in Act IL Bernardo paces up 
and down, mentally disturbed.) 

FRANCESCO (pointing to the Cross 
in the Heavens) 

What can it mean? A sign of the Plague's abatement, 
As was the rainbow? Hardly ; for the Cross 
Is deeper crimson than the setting sun 
Upon a sultry day, when it forebodes 

A hotter morrow. 

BERNARDO (sharply) 

What it means is plain. 

FRANCESCO. 

Plain? 

BERNARDO. 
Nothing could be plainer. 'Tis that Heaven, 
Indignant that we have allowed the Turk 
To keep possession of the Holy Land, 
Has sent an angel host, too dazzling bright 
For human eye, to bear the Cross aloft 
And by its glory rouse our sleeping zeal. 
It has roused me already. I intend, 
Francesco, to dispose of all my goods 
And lead a Knightly troop to Palestine. 



God speed you. 



FRANCESCO. 
BERNARDO. 



Will you come? 

FRANCESCO (laughing faintly) 
No! Italy 
Holds me too firmly with her delicate hands 
Of Art and Beauty. You can take the fool, 
He is good company where cheer is scarce. 

59 



I cannot stay. 



60 GINEVRA 

,MOTHER (opening the door) 
Bernardo, let us go. 

BERNARDO (pointing to sign over 
door) 
Look! "Sanitas!" 
No one can leave this house. 

MOTHER. 

My anguish here increases. Everything 
I see or hear about the place, becomes 
The mournful frame of what I fail to see 
And fail to hear — my poor Ginevra ! 

BERNARDO. 

Patience 
And resignation you have preached to me ; 
Employ them, or you may disturb her peace. 
Enter the house. You need repose. 

MOTHER. 

Repose ? 
Oh, how repose when — look ! the heavens become 
Mount Calvary, whose Crimson Cross looks down 
Upon the world with Christ's reproachful glance 
To Peter, that he had denied Him thrice. 
O God ! well may the world weep bitterly. 
Like Peter at the crowing of the cock. 

BERNARDO (leading zvife towards 
door) 
Francesco and I have business to transact. 

MOTHER (drawing azvay and drop- 
ping on her knees) 
Wherein have I denied Thee, Lord? By Pride? 
Oh, pardon me my least unloving thought 
Of those beneath me ; as hadst Thou not made 



GINEVRA 61 

The poor Thy brethren closest to Thy heart, 
And honor them above the rank of Kings 
In being Thyself the most despised of men ! 
Ah ! rather this has been my grievous sin — 
I put my child before Thee in my love ! 
Else, Thou wouldst have spared her and let her live. 
Oh ! I shall wear the weeds of penitence 
And trudge the streets barefooted for my guilt. 
(Rises and enters the Palace.) 

FRANCESCO (zvhispering to Bernardo) 
'Tis well that we withheld from both of them 
The knowledge that the Bishop had annulled 
The marriage. 

BERNARDO. 



It was unfatherly beyond defense, 
Or hope of pardon. How am I to meet 
My daughter's soul hereafter, as I must, 
Before the Judge of Judges ? 

FRANCESCO. 



I regret it bitterly. 



Why ask me 



BERNARDO. 
Oh, how can I set eyes on her again ? 
Not all the fiends in hell can drag me forth 
From out my hiding place to look on her, 
After a crime so heinous ! Oh, my God ! 
The blush upon my cheek shall burn for ever, 
Like a live coal, though I should expiate 
The infamy by twenty thousand deaths. 
And every death should be a crush of bone 
From heel to skull by inches ! inches ! inches ! 

FRANCESCO. 
If you have business to transact with me, 
Be quick. I need a change of scene and rest. 



62 GINEVRA 

BERNARDO (pointing to the sign on 
the door) 
There is no change of scene while that is there. 

FRANCESCO. 
Well, to begin the business, let me say 
It cost me dearly every time the clerk 
Deferred the serving of the Court's decree 
Upon Ginevra. Inasmuch as you 
Coerced the priest with raised sword and not I, 
And held her hand when I put on the ring, 
You must allow me all that I have paid 
For the suppression of the Bishop's verdict. 

BERNARDO. 
How much ? 

FRANCESCO. 
Two thousand — 

BERNARDO. 

Zounds ! 

FRANCESCO (coolly) 

Not "zounds", but florins. 



I pay no part of that. 



BERNARDO. 
FRANCESCO. 



You must pay all. 



BERNARDO. 
"Must" is a word to menials. Bear in mind, 
Francesco Agolanti, you have failed 
To help me rise to power. 

FRANCESCO. 

Whose fault was that ^ 

You would not melt like metal to be shaped 

As all men have to do in public life. 



GINEVRA 63 

But would, forsooth, at once be Vulcan's self ! 
All that is passed. Now to my claim. The marriage 
Was brought about by you ; I but complied 
To serve your purpose that I might help mine. 

BERNARDO (after pacing up and 
down) 
Ginevra dying childless — 

FRANCESCO. 

Oh, I know, 
Two-thirds of what she brought me is your due ! 
And you will get it, less what I disbursed 
To balk the Bishop. 

BERNARDO (sharply) 
When? 

FRANCESCO. 

As soon as the Plague 
Has run its course. What is all business now 
But mockery ? for, haggle as we may. 
Only the Plague can figure up a gain. 

BERNARDO. 

There is no cause for haggling, for two thirds 
Mean just two-thirds — no more, no less. 

FRANCESCO. 

My claim 
Is disallowed then ? Very well, Bernardo ! 
But let me tell you that your parsimony. 
Which sharpens like your nose and tongue with age, 
May be too sharp to serve your purpose well. 

BERNARDO. 

Two hundred thousand florins are my due. 
When shall I get it ? 



64 GINEVRA 

FRANCESCO (after a pause) 

Just as soon, Bernardo, 
As I effect a fortunate alliance. 

BERNARDO. 
What! have your riotings impoverished you? 
If I get not my due within ten days, 
I shall exact the forfeit — not so much 
For the amount involved ; though it will help 
Me to equip a Knightly Company 
To reach the Holy Land — as to avenge 
The wrong my child has suffered at your hands. 

FRANCESCO. 
What forfeit? 

BERNARDO. 

Is your memory befogged? 
This palace is the forfeit. I took care 
In the agreement not to be befooled, 
For I surmised then what has since occurred. 

FRANCESCO. 
Ten days ! At present I have no resources. 
I have in mind a widow worth my debt 
Many times over, who would gladly help 
Me save my ancient palace from your seizure, 
Provided there be no unseemly haste. 

(The Roysterers are heard shouting.) 

BERNARDO. 
All Florence has gone mad. Where are you going ? 

FRANCESCO (starting to go) 
Theirs is the only way to foil the Plague. 

BERNARDO (drawing sword) 
Francesco Agolanti ! not a step. 
Would you insult my daughter's memory 



GINEVRA 65 

And, by your rioting ere she is cold, 
Confirm a most atrocious falsity 
Reflecting on her honor as your wife? 

FRANCESCO (placing his hand on his 
sword but resisting the 
impulse) 
Bernardo Amieri, you are right. 
Such mad behavior as to dance and sing 
Upon the day she died and was entombed. 
Might look, in sooth, that I believe Ginevra 
Unworthy of a husband's reverence ; 
And truly I revere her. Her fair fame 
Needs not the confirmation of strange signs 
And wonders after death, to prove it true. 

BERNARDO (with concern) 
What do you mean, Francesco? 

FRANCESCO. 

Oh ! it troubles 
Me sorely when I think of it. Enraged 
By Rumor's blackening bite, Ginevra flung 
Herself upon her knees, and with her eyes 
Turned Heavenward with the whiteness of her soul. 
Prayed that she be permitted to return 
To show me by strange signs that she was pure. 



God rest her soul. 



BERNARDO. 

FRANCESCO. 

Amen. 

BERNARDO. 

Ah! if Ginevra 
Is not in Heaven, small chance has any of us. 

(The Roysterers are heard louder) 
Hurry in, lest they see us. Shut the door. 



66 GINEVRA 

FRANCESCO (after a pause) 
"Ten days," you say ? 

BERNARDO (zvith determination) 
Ten days at most. 

FRANCESCO. 

The Plague 

May disarrange your schedule, Amieri ! 

And be more merciful to me than you. 

(Bernardo opens the door, and zvhen Francesco enters the palace, 
follows him. The Roysterers appear on the street, many of 
them richly attired zvomen zvith dishevelled hair and carrying 
musical instruments. The Chief Roysterer goes to the palace 
door and pulling dozvn the sign, ''Sayiitas," throzvs it to his 
companions zvho jump and dance upon it.) 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 
Viva Francesco Agolanti ! 

(They repeat Francesco's name and cheer lustily.) 
Francesco Agolanti ! open the palace door, for we have come on 
the noblest of missions. We have come to make the most popular 
citizen of our City the President of the Florentine Republic. 
(Thev repeat Francesco's name and cheer zvildly.) 
Francesco Agolanti, if he had been in office, would never have 
permitted the Plague, or any other legate of the devil to enter 
our City. 

(They cheer.) 
Were Francesco Agolanti in office, as he should have been, if the 
popular will had not been frustrated, the Plague with its hungry 
troop of evils would not have been allowed to drive us out of our 
happy homes and provide for us no shelter but the grave. 
(They call out for Francesco.) 
Francesco Agolanti, we call on you to help us out of our trouble. 
You promised us that if you were ever elected President of the 
Republic, evils of any kind would be unknown in our City. We 
call on you now to save us. Come out, or we will apply the 
torch to every palace in Florence, and, like Nero, dance and sing 



GINEVRA 67 

at sight of the flames. The city is all plague rubbish anyhow, and 
might as well go up in one blaze. 

JESTER (entering and in a clear 
stentorian voice.) 
Francesco Agolanti ! Now that your friends have serenaded yot^, 
their throats are thirsty. There is no encore to a song like a glass 
of wine. An empty stomach and an empty flagon are the devil's 
own match, and what the devil has joined, man should put 
asunder. Ha! Ha! 

(They cheer the Jester and call out for Francesco.) 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 

Francesco Agolanti ! Why do you stubbornly keep in doors ? 

Have you discovered the cloister beneath your palace roof, and 
found such comfort in it that you already prefer a monk's life, 
secluded from the world, the flesh and the devil ? 

JESTER. 
I can answer for my master on that score. 

ROYSTERERS. 
The fool I the fool ! Let us hear what the fool has to say on 
behalf of his master. 

JESTER (pointing at the chief roys- 
terer) 
On behalf of my master, I want to say that you are a cross- 
eyed, hair-lipped, bald-headed liar! 
(They laugh) 
You could not see straight, though you had a pair of eyes one 
before the other, like horses going tandem. You have a mouth 
that is the ugliest instrument of torture in Christendom, for it 
twists and cracks the bones of truth by an inuendo imputing 
treason to a faithful wife. If debauchery had left a single 
honest hair on your head, you would now drop on your knees and 
mumble your pater noster until the Plague comes along, and 



68 GINEVRA 

catching a glimpse of you, throws up his job in disgust and quits 
the city rather than touch so vile a monster even with his finger- 
nail. Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha! 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 
Ha ! Ha ! Since Francesco Agolanti will not come out, what say 
you, friends, if we make his fool the President of the Florentine 
Republic in his stead ? 

' ROYSTERERS. 
The fool! the fool! We acclaim the fool the President of the 
Florentine Republic. 

JESTER. 
No ! No ! I protest ! I would not give up my liberty to tell the 
truth without fear or favor or respect of person, for all the 
Presidencies in the world. 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 
Your objection is overruled. Up on my shoulders for your 
inaugural address. 

(Seises the Jester and lifts him on his shoulders.) 

JESTER. 
Illustrious Florentines ! there is an unbroken line of fools in 
public office down to the days of Solomon ; but there is a difference 
between these fools. Some of them were the wisest men of their 
times before they entered office and the biggest fools in history, 
immediately afterward ; while others were happy fools at the 
start and woful wise men at the finish. 

ROYSTERERS. 
Tell us how to banish the Plague. 

JESTER. 
Illustrious Florentines ! Give me eternity to think that over. 

ROYSTERERS. 
No! No! 



GINEVRA 69 

JESTER. 
I have already several differences of opinion with the Al- 
mighty. Why does not the sun shine at night when there is 
need of its big lantern, instead of in the day when the light is 
so strong in your eyes that you walk straight into a puddle? 

ROYSTERERS. 
Give the answer now, or we will stone you to death. 

JESTER. 

You shall have the answer by all means, for I am not a saint 
who can pick up his head from the ground and run away with it 
in his hand. The answer is, have a new order of things — change 
the Government. 

Whenever in former years, a plague, or a famine, or a drouth, 
entered our city, you never thought of making a change in the 
Government, but let things go on as they were before. The 
famine, the Plague and the drouth entered our homes and de- 
stroyed them whenever they pleased without So much as asking the 
city's leave. They should have been declared heretics and burnt 
at the stake hundreds of miles away from Florence, and that is 
what I propose to do for the next thousand years, if the gentle- 
man's shoulders sustain my presidency that long. 

ROYSTERERS (in chorus) 
They will ! they will ! 

JESTER. 
Furthermore, let me tell you, most illustrious Florentines ! that 
I shall not curry favor with the populace by encouraging any 
popular delusion, and, therefore, though I should be immediately 
expelled from my exalted office and driven out of the city, I deny 
that a dead body has not the breath of life in it. I deny it, for this 
very night the dead body of my lady gave a sigh that startled me 
like a clap of thunder, and in good faith, took the breath out of 
me. I hobbled to Antonio Rondinelli as fast as my legs could 
carry me. 



70 GINEVRA 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 

Antonio Rondinelli ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! The fool knew where to 
bring the good news. Vulma knew what she was talking about 
when she said that Francesco Agolanti was the blindest man in 
Florence. 

JESTER. 

Ever since, I've been asking myself is there such a thing as 
death, and have come to believe with the poets that love outlasts 
the breath of the nostrils, that it survives the senses and all the 
faculties, and therefore, say I, love each other, O ye Florentines, 
if you would be immortal ! 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 
We will be immortals ! 

ROYSTERERS (in chorus) 
Yes, immortals ! immortals ! 

(They swing each other by the hand and kiss each other in 
turn) 

TESTER. 

By the virtue and power invested in me as the president of the 
Florentine Republic pro tern, de facto, provisional, or perpetual, 
as the case may be, I proclaim that all lovers in Florence are ex- 
empt from Death. (The Roysterers cheer.) This edict, however, 
does not affect those already in their hiding places in the earth, 
for Florence has housing accomodations for no more than the 
present generation, and could not even give standing room in the 
street for a thousandth part of the revered pilgrims of love that 
would come from the ages that are gone. It would be a blessing 
though, if all came, for they would crowd out from our city the 
white livered penitents who, between their whining by day and 
snoring by night, prevent an honest man from snatching a wink 
of sleep. 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 

Now for a triumphal march through the streets of Florence. 
Pluck down every sign of mourning from the houses on our way, 



GINEVRA 71 

for when there is no death, why should there be mourning? 

Start the Music ! March ! 

(With the Jester remaining on the Chief Roysterers shoulders, 
they move aivay keeping time to the tune of the instriiments. 
The Penitents approach, singing a hymn, and Cinemas 
mother opening the palace door, comes out robed in peniten- 
tial garb.) 

MOTHER. 

Permit me, dear, kind souls, to follow you 

In ceaseless pilgrimage to purge my soul. 

I am the greatest sinner in the world ; 

For they who have large knowledge of God's love, 

Sin far more greatly by the smallest slight, 

Than those who know not, do by gross offense. 

Yea, I shall walk barefoot like all the rest. 

(The Penitents continue their march without seeming to heed 
Donna Amieri, who removes her shoes and throws them on 
the ground. She follows the Penitents, and as they depart, 
Cinevra is discovered making her way wearily to the Palace 
door. Midway, she sees the shoes and puts them on her 
feet.) 

GINEVRA. 

pilgrim ! who has cast these shoes away, 

1 thank you ; for my feet, indeed, need warmth. 

(Coes to door and knocks, but makes faint sound.) 
Oh ! were my feet as rapid as my heart, 
I might have reached those pious souls in time 
To help me wake my husband from his sleep. 
Francesco ! 

(She calls his name several times, then goes to his window 
and shakes it.) 

FRANCESCO (at window) 

Who is it that calls my name? 

GINEVRA. 

Ginevra. 

FRANCESCO. 
Who? 



72 GIN EVE A 

GINEVRA. 
Your wife. 

FRANCESCO. 

That cannot be. 
My wife, the pure Ginevra, died to-day, 
And at sunset we laid her in the tomb. 

GINEVRA. 
That well I know, Francesco ! but the light 
From the triumphant Cross now making morn 
Of midnight, touched my eyes, and I awoke, 
And you behold me come back from the tomb. 

FRANCESCO. 
Poor spirit ! Go in peace. I shall have masses 
Said daily, and give alms for your repose. 

GINEVRA. 
Open the door, Francesco ! I am cold. 
My teeth are chattering and my flesh is numb. 
I feel the charnel damp in all my bones. 

FRANCESCO. 
Whether you are Ginevra's soul, or fiend 
That takes its semblance, I bid you avaunt ! 



GINEVRA. 



My husband — oh, my husband, feel my hand ! 
Am I impure that you now shrink from me? 

FRANCESCO. 
Oh, never purer woman than my wife! 
No need has she to come forth from the grave 
To prove her sanctity while on the earth. 
All Florence was its witness. 



GINEVRA 73 

GINEVRA. 

Still, Francesco, 
You thought me faithless ! 

FRANCESCO. 

Never ! by the Cross 
That shines aloft, I swear it. 

GINEVRA. 

You did think 

Me faithless, for with raised sword you bade me 
To show you where Antorjio was hid. 
Ah ! the remembrance of that cruel word, 
Francesco, stings me — oh, a thousand times 
Worse than the charnel house's biting cold ! 

FRANCESCO. 

Not ever in my heart was there one doubt ! 
I swear it. Falsehood, tho' it drags its victims 
In countless thousands to the sepulchre. 
Drops dead the instant that it lays a hand 
Upon Ginevra Agolanti's name. 

GINEVRA. 
Ever was I a faithful wife, else, truly, 
I would not have returned to-night to you. 
Open the door ! I perish with the cold. 
My head is dizzy and I scarce can stand. 

BERNARDO (at window, having thrust 
Francesco aside) 
Who is it speaks? 

GINEVRA. 

Your daughter, your Ginevra. 
My father ! oh, my father ! take me in. 

BERNARDO. 
Blest spirit ! what is it that troubles you ? 
If harm committed by your hand, or heart, 



74 GINEVRA 

Impedes your progress to eternal peace, 
Tell me what reparation I can make, 
And I shall make it. 

GINEVRA. 

And you doubt me, too. 
My father? oh, my father! I could suffer 
The Purgatorial pains a thousand years, 
Rather than you should doubt me. 

BERNARDO. 

Peace, poor soul! 
I shall have masses said in every church. 
And shall distribute alms to all the poor, 
And help regain the Holy Sepulchre, 
For your soul's comfort and untroubled rest. 

GINEVRA. 
There is no peace forever now for me. 

BERNARDO. 
Tell me, dear child, what is it troubles you? 
Oh, tell me do you suffer from the curse 
Which Holy Writ declares is visited 
On children to the seventh generation 
For the transgressions of their parents ? Speak ! 

GINEVRA. 
Aye verily! I suffer from that curse. 
It has brought me to this most wretched plight. 

BERNARDO. 
Oh, tell me, have the Amieri failed 
Ever in duty? They have builded chapels 
And hospitals, have fed and clothed the poor. 
And they have dashed their blood, like Holy Water, 
Into the devil's mocking, Moslem face f 

In battle for the Blest Redeemer's tomb. M 



GINEVRA 75 

GINEVRA (with a sigh) 
Oh, Yes! but gifts to God rise black to heaven, 
From one with hate of brother in his heart. 
Help! I am drenched with death from head to foot. 
Oh, let me in to change these charnel clothes 
For something warm to wear, and get some food. 
I famish with both hunger and the cold. 

BERNARDO. 
Name me one Amieri who did aught 
To draw a curse from heaven upon our house. 

GINEVRA. 
You, father. 

BERNARDO. 
I? 

GINEVRA. 

You, father, by your hate 
Of Rondinelli for an ancient wrong. 

BERNARDO. 
What! If remembrance of a fiendish deed 
To my ancestor, draws a curse from heaven. 
All justice is but mockery of itself. 
Avaunt, deceitful spectre, that would take 
My daughter's saintly semblance to torment 
Her father, as he ages toward the tomb 
Of his ancestors whom he hopes to meet! 

GINEVRA. 
I am no spirit ! Father, feel my hand. 
My face, my body. Look, — oh, look! my arm 
Has no plague spot, so that there was small reason 
To carry me so quickly to the tomb. 

BERNARDO. 
It cannot be my child. How can it be? 
I saw the Plague spot and they shut the tomb. 



76 GINEVRA 

GINEVRA. 
It may be that the venom of the Plague 
Was in Francesco's grasp, when by the arm 
He seized me and bade me to tell him where 
Antonio was hiding in my house. 
It made me weep. It may have left a mark, 
And any mark will answer for the Plague's 
When one has not a friend, nor relative. 
Who cares enough to take a second glance. 
O Father! look at me. Look once, once onlv 
And you will know your daughter whom you held 
When her young hand was chopped off at the heart 
Upon the block of marriage to Francesco. 

BERNARDO. 
Off, hideous fiend! The priest shall bless this house 
That you shall never trouble it again. (Shuts the window.) 

GINEVRA. 
My mother! wake. My mother! You will know 
Ginevra, and not drive your daughter back 
Into the night, when, coming from the grave 
All cold and weak, she needs a mother's warmth 
And tender care, as when a new-born babe ! 
Come ! look upon me ! oh, one glance ! one glance ! 
Come, you will take my hand and clasp me close. 
My mother, oh, my mother ! why not come 
To your Ginevra ? You will recognize 
Her features, tho' none else can, as you did 
Long years ago when, having strayed from home, 
She played within a churchyard, and when night 
Fell, cried herself asleep upon a grave. 
Come, wash again the grave dirt from my face 
With your own hands, and tell me once again : 
"There ! now you do look like my precious child." 
My mother! oh, my mother! — then, farewell! 



GINEVRA 77 

For if my mother fails to heed my call, 
All hope is gone. I go back to the tomb, 
To leave which was a rash impiety, 
And surely it has met swift punishment. 
Lord ! pardon ; I shall not offend again. 

(Gathering up her remaining strength in a supreme effort, she 
goes on her way back to the tomb.) 

CURTAIN. 



GINEVRA 



ACT V. 



(The. tomb and street scene as in Act III. Ginevra about to 
enter the tomb, looks back and takes a few steps aside.) 

GINEVRA. 
Farewell to life. The sweetness and the warmth 
And all the nourishment of mother's milk 
Were once in every object in the world. 
I drained them as an infant, and grew strong; 
But now the milk in everything has turned — 
I like its taste no more. O mystic Cross! 
But for thy comfort to my soul, I fear 
That I would beat my brains out on the tomb. 
Thou bringest hope, for oh, thou art engraved 
Inside upon eternal glory's gate 
And seen, because that gate has opened wide 
To all the heavy-hearted on the earth; 
And who is heavier of heart than I? 
{Antonio appears on the street, garbed like a hermit and carrying 

a staff and a scrip.) 
Is that a footstep? Does it fare this way, 
Or like all others, hasten otherwhere? 

{Catching a glimpse of Antonio she raises her voice.) 
Oh, is there not one Christian soul in Florence 
To take compassion on my wof ul plight ? 

ANTONIO {halting) 
Ginevra's voice and features ! Oh, a vision 
To mock my heart and soul ! For, laid I not 
Her lifeless body on the catafalque? 
Oh ! is my eye conspiring with my ear 
Against me for my reason's overthrow? 

GINEVRA. 

God ! is there nothing open now to me 
Except the tomb in which they shut me up? 

81 



82 GINEVRA 

ANTONIO (dropping the scrip and 
approaching her) 
Ginevra ? 

{Startled at hearing her name and recognizing Antonio, she 
starts in alarm tozvard the tomb.) 

Gentle spirit! vanish not. 

GINEVRA (turning toward him) 
Oh, think me not a spirit Hke the rest, 
Antonio! Still, would you had not come! 

ANTONIO. 
Oh, flesh or phantom, you are my Ginerva! 
Oh, all the more if spirit — and how else? 
Your faithful fool informed me of your death 
And, when I reached the tomb two hours ago, 
I raised your lifeless body from the floor 
Where they had cast it. 

GINEVRA. 

I awoke and, when 
I tried to reach the door, grew faint and fell. 

ANTONIO. 
Oh, had I waited just a little while, 
What ages of acutest agony 
I might have spared you ! For to you entombed, 
A second must have seemed a century. 

GINEVRA (sighing) 
Yes, when between the steps of halting hope, 
A second is, in sooth, a century. 
My cry availed not. They who heard me, shunned. 

ANTONIO. 
I left the tomb just long enough to tell 
My relatives of my intent henceforth 
To dwell a hermit here. 



GINEVRA S3 

GINEVRA. 

Antonio ! 
Oh, I am fearful of myself, not you ! 
So, go away ! I pray you, go away, 
Antonio! Think not my words unkind. 
The end of our long wait is not far off. 
Why for a dew drop at the brink of death, 
Forfeit the ocean of eternal joy? 

ANTONIO. 
I came back to abide within your tomb 
Until my soul, set free by death, might join 
Your blessed spirit in the happier world ; 
And now I find you far from me as ever. 

GINEVRA. 
Oh, had I not awoke but passed beyond ! 
(The White Penitents appear chanting the "Misericordia." At 

sight of Ginevra, her mother breaks from the ranks and 

approaches her daughter.) 

MOTHER. 
My God! Is that Ginevra whom I see? 
Is that my daughter whom we laid to rest? 
Speak, oh, my daughter, speak! 

GINEVRA {gazing straight at her 
mother and instantly 
turning away) 
My mother? No! 

MOTHER {with eyes and arms lifted 
toward Heaven) 
Mother of Sorrows ! help me ! Thou wert never 
Heart-pierced by a sword so sharp, for thou wert never 
Denied by thine own child. 



84 GINEVRA 

GINEVRA {lifting her eyes and hands 
to Heaven) 
No, no! O Mother 

Of Sorrows ! For thou didst not deny thy child. 

When He sought shelter, thou didst give it Him. 

MOTHER. 
My daughter, who denied you shelter? 

GINEVRA. 

You! 

MOTHER. 
I! 

GINEVRA. 
When my husband drove me from the door, 
And then my father bade me not return. 
You heeded not my cry. 

MOTHER. 

My poor Ginevra! 

You talk the language of the wildest dream. 

GINEVRA. 
No dream. On waking in the tomb, I crept 
As best I could back to Francesco's house. 

MOTHER. 
My God! I was not there. I joined these folk 
To walk barefoot in penance for my sin 
In putting you before God in my love. 

GINEVRA. 
Oh ! it was then your shoes, I found still warm. 

{Throws herself Into her mother's arms.) 
Forgive me, mother! for this cruel wrong 
That I have done you. 

MOTHER {returning her embrace) 
My Ginevra! child! 
My dear dead darling come to life again! 



GIN EVE A 85 

my Ginevra gone from me for ever, 

But found again ! Oh, child whom I once more 
Find in the churchyard, and take home with joy ! 

{Takes off her cloak and puts it on her daughter.) 

GINEVRA. 

1 feel the cold but little, but my flesh 
Hangs heavily on me and drags me down. 

ANTONIO {approaching) 
This, truly, is a night of miracles 
Upon the earth as well as in the heavens. 

MOTHER {amazed) 
Antonio Rondinelli? — Child, come home. 

GINEVRA. 
I have no home. 

ANTONIO. 

Her husband cast her out. 

MOTHER. 
You have your father's home. 

GINEVRA. 

No; he disowned me, 
And I shall look upon his face no more. 

MOTHER. 
Come. You do surely wrong your father, even 
As you wronged me. Come, you are perishing. 

ANTONIO {inpulsively clasping 
Ginevra) 

Come, you are mine. I claim you by the right 

Of rescue from the tomb. Be dead to those 

Who have disowned you. They have set you free. 



86 GINEVRA 

MOTHER (clutching Ginevra and 
addressing A n to n io ) 

No! I would rather see my daughter dead 

Than go with you while yet Francesco lives. 

GINEVRA. 
Oh, help me to the nearest convent gate. 
There I can rest, and then I can resume 
My work among the poor, who have gone crazed 
In their affliction and help not themselves, 
Nor one another; else, harm more than help. 



ANTONIO. 
Oh, noble Soul ! true to the last to others. 
(The Black Company enters with a body. They halt before the 

tomb, kneel in silent prayer, and chant the customary hymn. 

Francesco, followed by the Jester, comes nervously on the 

scene and approaches the Company.) 



FRANCESCO. 
Entomb the body quickly. 'Tis no wonder 
The Plague is spread thro' Florence, when instead 
Of burying the dead without delay, 
You kneel in silent prayer and chant your hymn. 
Make haste, now, to the Amieri vault. 

(Seeing Francesco, the mother approaches the bier and, lifting 
the coverlet from the face, utters a piercing shriek.) 

MOTHER. 
Bernardo! oh, my husband! noble husband! 
What has befallen you ? And I away 
When at your bedside I was needed most 
To help you to prepare your soul for God! 

(Francesco is dumfounded for a moment.) 
Your father, dear Ginevra! 'tis your father! 



GINEVRA 87 

FRANCESCO. 
Qod! Can this be Ginevra come to life? 
It was no apparition then I saw. 

(Without looking at her fathers face, or noticing Francesco, she 
lifts up the lifeless arm.) 

GINEVRA (calmly) 
There is no Plague-spot on this arm. 

FRANCESCO (excited) 

There is! 

GINEVRA. 

I know the mark too well to be mistaken. • 

FRANCESCO (to Black Company) 
Haste to the tomb. How dare you tarry? 

GINEVRA. 

'Tis 

No more the Plague-spot than the redness was 
Upon my shoulder, from my husband's hand. 

(Antonio lifts up Bernardo's arm and uncovers his breast.) 

ANTONIO. 
These marks are wounds. Sword-thrusts the both of them. 

MOTHER. 
My God! Francesco, has your argument 
About Ginevra's dower with poor Bernardo 
Ended in murder? 

FRANCESCO. 

Murder ? No ! Bernardo 

Was stricken by the Plague. The Jester saw 
The Plague-spot on the arm and tolled the bell. 

(To Jester) 
Did you not see the Plague-spot on the arm? 



88 GINEVRA 

JESTER. 
In good faith, master, I saw the Plague-spot on Bernardo's 
arm, for being a good servant, I found what I was sent for. 

FRANCESCO (sharply) 
Did you not see the Plague-spot on the arm? 

JESTER. 
In faith, good master, your word is always good enough for me, 
for it gets me my meals and shelter. When you told me 'twas 
there, I knew it without looking. I have no curiosity to inspect 
a plague, for it is a dog with a bad name, and I keep out of its 
way. I tolled the bell as well as I could, for my arms were 
tired with laying down the law as President of the Florentine 
Republic. I had escaped barely with my life from the honors 
thrust upon me, when I reached your palace, and was hardly 
able to differentiate mumps from thumps with the accuracy of 
a leech. 

ANTONIO (breaking the suspense) 
Francesco Agolanti! 'tis your work. 

FRANCESCO. 
What! You, Antonio Rondinelli here? 
Ginevra's death was only then a ruse, 
Concocted by you both when you were cloistered 
Beneath my roof? Oh, I was truly blind 
And a fit butt for the jest and laugh of Florence ! 

(The Captain of the Black Company steps forth.) 

CAPTAIN. 
Ginevra Amieri, how believe 
My vision? for I laid you in the tomb. 

GINEVRA. 
I woke, and made my way back to my home. 
I should have perished, had Antonio 
Not heard my outcry. 



GINEVRA 89 

FRANCESCO (exultantly) 

Why should he not hear it? 
He was convenient, as of course arranged. 

GINEVRA. 
God sent him here to save me. 

FRANCESCO. 

Come! 
GINEVRA. 

I ? Never ! 

FRANCESCO. 
Ginevra, I command you by the right 
That marriage gives me to obedience. 

CAPTAIN. 
Yours was no marriage in the sight of Heaven, 
But an abomination. She was never 
Your wife, Francesco Agolanti! Never! 
For she withheld consent, and I was forced 
To act the sacrilege for which, since then, 
The tortures of the damned have been my lot. 

FRANCESCO (haughtily) 
By what authority do you annul 
The marriage rite which you yourself performed? 

CAPTAIN. 
By the authority of Holy Church, 
Before whose Bishop I set forth the truth 
In all its horror. For my human weakness 
In letting worldly prudence interfere 
With my plain duty, I have been condemned 
To silence for ten years from saying mass, 
Which was the greatest transport of my soul. 

FRANCESCO. 
Church, or no Church, Ginerva is my wife. 
Come. 



90 GINEVRA 

ANTONIO. 
She shall not. Her heart was ever mine, 
As well you knew, and now her hand is mine. 

FRANCESCO. 
Not while / live. 

ANTONIO. 

You cast her from your door ; 
I take her to my heart. You made her life 
A muffled moan; now I shall make it song. 
Your bloody hand shall touch her not again, 
And you shall answer for her father's death. 

FRANCESCO (about to draw his sword) 
It shall be bloodier . 

ANTONIO. 

Draw it not, base wretch, 

Till we have laid Bernardo in the tomb. 
The dead deserves that much respect from you. 
(Francesco drops sword and turns aside, hearing the shouts of 
the revellers advancing.) 

MOTHER (bending over bier) 
Oh, my most noble husband, sent unshriven 
Before your Maker by a murderer's hand! 
Stabbed in your slumber surely! for awake, 
Your skill and strength would have foiled any foe. 
Oh, may God's grace have reached you! may one tear 
Have welled up from your heart before too late. 
And washed you white of black or scarlet stain. 

CAPTAIN (raising mother up and 
pointing to the cross) 
Rise, daughter, and be comforted. Behold 
Mount Calvary! If Christless is the Cross, 
Miss not the meaning of the miracle. 
He is not shown in anguish on the Cross 
Because He has descended into hell, 



GINEVRA 91 

Of which unhappy Florence is a pit, 
To loose bound souls that they may rise with Him. 
(Enter the Roysterers.) 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 
Francesco Agolanti, if you have become one of the Black 
Company, why, in the name of common reason, don't you put on 
their moping robes? 

FRANCESCO. 
Not I. I am now a free man and ready for any thing you wish. 
The Presidency of the Republic, or a torch for every palace in 
Florence, is one to me. 

(The Roysterers applaud.) 

CHIEF ROYSTERER. 
Good! Good! but first, fetch us to your wine cellar, for our 
throats are parched with thirst. The wine hue from the Cross 
which all Florence is gaping at, only maddens us that it doesn't 
turn into liquor for our gullets. 

FRANCESCO (with false gaiety of 
tone) 
Come along, brave fellows! I have plenty of sparkling ver- 
naccio left, though not a devil of a servant to hand it to us. 

ROYSTERERS (in Chorus) 
We will help ourselves. 
(They follow Francesco, and the Black Company lifts the bier.) 

ANTONIO. 
Come, mother, for, by that endearing name, 
You will permit me to salute you now, 
And let us take Ginevra to my house, 
For she needs nourishment and tender care. 

MOTHER (approaching Captain) 
Good priest, inform me is it true, indeed. 
The marriage was annulled by Holy Church? 



92 GINEVRA 

CAPTAIN. 
Most true, my child. 

MOTHER. 

How did it happen, then, 
That poor Ginevra was not told of it? 

CAPTAIN. 
I do not know. 'Tis sad, but still most true, 
That gold, the root of evil, branches forth 
And forms dense thickets, covering many things 
Which Holy Church intends for public view. 
The marriage was annulled; that much I know. 
Go to the Bishop, who is as unyielding 
To gold, or power, or craft, as truth itself, 
And he will gladly show you his decree. 

MOTHER. 
Thank God, my children. 

(Antonio and Ginevra embrace.) 

GINEVRA. 

Dear Antonio! 
My saviour! for I know no other name 
But that blest one, by which to call you now. 
That you have truly raised me from the dead. 

ANTONIO. 
I am the one who has been raised from death, 
Far more than you, Ginevra. 

GINEVRA. 

I was dead 
Since you were taken bleeding from my house 
And, then, this ring was stolen from my keep. 
(Shows the ring.) 

ANTONIO. 
Dear, faithful soul! Let no unhappy thought 
Drag back from night's fast hold a single cloud 



GINEVRA 93 

To mar the morning which is breaking now. 
Let us think only how we can thank Him 
In our poor human way, for our great joy 
Which, still, is sober ; for, like all great joy 
Upon the earth, it stands beside a bier. 

MOTHER. 
"There is no dark in life, but trust in God, 
If it step boldly, or put forth its hand. 
Will find a marble stairway to the stars, 
Or balustrade to check its headlong fall." 
O God ! I put my hand out in the dark. 
Now thick about me. He was taken off 
Without a chance to make his peace with Thee 
By casting every hatred from his heart ! 

CAPTAIN. 
The Cross on high, that strikes the world to-night, 
Is more than Moses' wand. It smites with love, 
And hearts, though hardened into rock, well forth 
In copious streams, unseen by mortal eye. 

MOTHER. 
Oh, heart more kind, or true, was not on earth ! 

CAPTAIN (after a pause) 
Brethren, we must go back. We must return 
The body where we found it and report 
Bernardo's death was not due to the Plague. 
My God! what awful crimes are daily done 
And hid beneath the cover of the Plague! 

(The Black Company, chanting, carry the bier, and are followed 
by the Mother, Ginevra and Antonio.) 

JESTER (watching i>rocession dis- 
appear) 

In good faith, Antonio Rondinelli, your tongue has now good 
cause to be glib. You can well say, "Peace to both our houses," 



94 GINEVRA 

for you are out of the hearing of Bernardo Amieri. Now rises 
the question which throws all other questions like dishwater out 
of the window — what is going to become of me? Thus said 
Caesar when he saw Brutus, so that, in good sooth, there is good 
historical warrant for the question. Whose fortunes am I to 
follow? If I follow those of my master, Francesco Agolanti, 
I shall surely go to the devil, and hell is not the place for me. 
Ha-ha ! There are too many damned fools there already, so that 
even the President of the Florentine Republic would cut no figure 
there. I shall stick to my mistress, like Antonio, and thereby, 
hit two birds with one stone ; for like him, I shall then be happy 
both in this world and the next. Ha-ha! ha-ha-ha-ha! ha-ha! 
But what if young Rondinelli should bear me a grudge for 
snarling at his approach and howling for his absence as the only 
bone to my relish? Ha-Ha! I have it. Good intentions on my 
part and lack of wit on his part. I played the dog at his heels 
just to warn him to keep out of harm's way ; for any Christian 
Knight who was good enough to be favored by my mistress, 
Ginevra, with her heart, was certainly good enough to be 
favored by her dog with a howl when calamity was at hand. 
Ha-Ha! I shall get a fine coat for those good intentions that 
I should have had. 'Tis by such a swop that half the great men 
of the world get their gold lace and velvet doublets, and manage 
to keep themselves from running about stark naked, so that the 
poor fool is no worse than his betters. 
(The chanting of the Black Company dies away, and the Jester, 

looking up at the Cross, is awe-struck and becomes reverential 

in his tone and demeanor.) 

How wonderful that Cross is ! It is the Glory of the Lord and 
its brightness is too great for me to look upon ; for I am only a 
poor "publican" like the one spoken of in the Gospel. Lord, have 
mercy on me and on every other poor fool in the world. 

CURTAIN. 



JAN 11 1912 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



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LIBRARY Ol- t;urnjincoo 

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